It was the rotten body of a man, hanging from the ceiling by a rope—under his feet was a small table.
Its old robe was torn from time. The skull was dry. Some cracked, pained but animalistic sounds came from its throat, gripping the rope like it was trying to free itself from there.
"Get..me..free.." The corpse hushed with a broken voice which sounded like air escaping from a dry throat.
Lìngxiāo watched it for a moment. The room. The rope. This room looked like the room of execution itself.
'Something has happened with him..within this room. And they just simply shifted away..and did not inform me there is something more critical might be happening here.'
He didn't listen to the corpse.
It would more likely repeat its last words—and if anyone fell for it, they would just increase problems. This was that kind of puppet.
But the way it was built was eye-catching.
The skin was paper-thin, black, and even there was burning—a little blowing-away flames of fire beneath its every hole like the eyes or ears, as if it had walked in here after getting burned within the lava.
"Hand me my curse tool." Lìngxiāo put his hand within his robe, sinking into the mirror again as he ordered.
"Here you go, Gōngzǐ." The eight-eyed one handed him something.
Lìngxiāo took it out like a sword being uncovered—not from its cover, but from the folds of his robe and the mirror. It was a thin, long metal weapon.
But not a sword.
It was used for cursed puppets which would be harmful to touch with bare hands. He normally didn't have a problem with touching like this, but since this one was built differently and might burn his hand or even risk overflowing his frozen ice for the sake of saving himself.
The matter also required Wàng Wùjī's help.
Lìngxiāo himself could only see the memories any object held without risk.
So he cut its whole head from its neck, making the body fall on the ground with a loud thud and a pained cry which also sounded angry.
"Eh! You never looked that cold earlier!!" The female ghost cried out in horror at seeing the way he handled the situation. She seemed now to be hiding even deeper into his hair—at the back of his skull within his hair.
Lìngxiāo didn't answer for now, just looking at the face while gripping the head by its rough hair. Too many clues and roads, theories and then external events had clouded his mind to focus elsewhere. He just had the straight plan that he would keep this head to send to Wàng Wùjī while he focused on the children's matter and secretly searched for that mysterious person who was definitely not protecting if seen closely.
Chóng Fēi couldn't stand ghosts. He was also a cultivator to sense it. But he didn't—and they intentionally sent right here where he would be obvious that here he would feel those dark energies.
So this really was fishy.
He was now sure of it. This looked more like an observing, watchful gaze disguised as for safety. Not while Chóng Fēi had the container abilities. There were fewer possibilities that anyone would actually wish for his well-being.
His gaze lowered when the body crawled closer to him, trembling and dissatisfied. The head talked to him. "Y-you..are as cruel..as them. Give me back my head!!!"
But he stabbed the curse tool right over the body's back and quickly put the head into the mirror.
"Keep it properly. I am too busy right now. So you all can have the investigation on that other gûi." He ordered calmly to his curses.
"Mō Qīn, go too." He drew the symbols quickly and summoned him.
"On it. No escape from me and my buddies~" Mō Qīn crawled over his neck and then tangled down to his arm until he went into his outer robe, disappearing into the mirror.
He was focused on twisting the tool over the puppet, which made a glass-cracking sound from the chest. The rest was bone cracking.
It made him pause and stab it a few times to confirm. Each stab just made it curse so many dirty words—even from the mirror, where some meanings he himself didn't know. He barely paid attention to those negative things. All he knew was..what Chóng Fēi cursed him or basic curses.
But still he hated the one Chóng Fēi spoke like his mother tongue the most.
But the cracking sound of glass was unexpected.
'There is an element which has made this body..evil..'
He pushed the body aside to see if any cracking pieces had fallen over the ground. But there was nothing. Just the sounds coming from its body faintly.
The female ghost peeked from his hair, making him more conscious of the fact that he still suspected the female ghost.
"Why scared of harm if you were meant to harm someone else too?" He asked thoughtfully to the female ghost, just to test reactions as he did to Chóng Féng.
The female ghost stiffened a bit and slowly went back into his hair locks. "You have to believe me, Gōngzǐ!! I do not know what is the intention of the peacock song dancer! I just did as told!"
"Since how long? Why does he not know about that?" Lìngxiāo asked back. He was analyzing the body, which wasn't dead but hungry for something which seemed too close right now.
'What even is making this body react this way? Was it even acting like this when we were not present?'
But he had also caught that the ghost was avoiding the question. Gripping her between his fingers—not in a harsh way, but to remind her who was still in control.
Then he asked again, calm but his dark, soft smile said all about how high he was on everything. "I have asked you an important question. I am not desiring to burn down the talisman I have gently just put you in without any violence as others have received."
"J-just five years! At the places he might go and gûi are available the most!" She quickly answered out of fear, her words small and high-pitched.
"Have you saved him even once..?" He asked again. "How? When? Give me one proof example."
The space only had the heavy silence and the strange sounds coming from the body. He turned his head at the ghost a bit.
"N..no. Never did. He never needed and..I have just informed what he is doing or not.." The ghost answered small, gripping a lock of his hair with her paper hands.
Lìngxiāo exhaled like a soft, knowing, soundless chuckle. Then said, "That person really did use you to get to know him. If you were really set up to save him—why have I saved him a few times?"
She paused like trying to understand what he was saying.
"He used you." Lìngxiāo stated, now totally sure. His tone gentle but sounded cold for being matter-of-fact. "He told you enough to stay within a safe zone and move the progress because one day I or anyone else would catch you. Nobody who cared for him in real would set any gûi for his safety. It can be tamed mōs like mine. Not his own phobia."
"How many times have you hunted him?" He asked again directly to her, leaving no room to escape. "Of course you did not do it alone. Because the Red-Robe gûi already is after him to hunt."
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!! YOU TRICKED ME WITH YOUR KINDNESS!!" The ghost got desperate now, couldn't escape for being locked into this talisman. "MY Gōngzǐ can never use me just because he did not tell me much about himself!! I'm his beloved gûi!!"
Lìngxiāo tilted his head—it was obvious why she was so uneasy about everything.
'This man—whomever he is—has brainwashed her completely. She is not only obeying him because of being ordered. She..has deep feelings for him. But he indeed does not care. He seems..to be playing with her emotions and using it perfectly.'
Lìngxiāo sighed and gave another harder stab over the corpse as nothing came out from its body more than some bones. His gentle eyes were full of disappointment. He didn't find the element much quickly.
'The heart..might not be activated yet.'
"I do not care." He spoke to the ghost again. "I just know one matter is clear: your Gōngzǐ is not as simple..as he might have been showing you. Do you think the one who cares for you..would hide themselves from you..? He knew..male ghosts are not easy to manipulate. So instead of insisting, you may tell me how many times you have hunted him even if it is little."
Finding no other way, the ghost spoke again. "Not always. Not too much. Just..before the days of the execution here.."
Lìngxiāo paused from whatever he was doing. This also tied with the execution. It was strongly planned for any reason.
'She really is not the regular watcher as expected.'
'Is it..guilt loop?'
'Was this also the reason Fēi Gōngzǐ was so much determined about changing the rules here? But whom does he feel so guilty about? How does it help that imposter? Perhaps..to make him emotionally weak.'
"Lìngxiāo, how long would you be here? Aren't you done with the gûis? There were so many things eating up my head and you have just ran into here without another word!" Chóng Fēi called—he was now upstairs at the same floor. His voice a little shaking at the edges, perhaps fearing the ghosts but still came up.
Lìngxiāo turned behind at the dark room. His breath faintly caught as Chóng Fēi showed up at an unwanted time.
His presence unexpectedly made that corpse tremble violently and stand up straight—and also made that seven-headed key he still had glow faintly, while it had been nothing but lying coldly in the chain near to Mō Qīn's crystal at his neck.
'Why and what is he triggering? It was reacting weak just earlier.'
His eyes widened, the faint light reflecting into his eyes. And then with unexpected strength the corpse gripped the curse tool he was holding and threw it away aside—with him—just when this unexpected event had unfolded.